Race Across America Changes

RAAM, Race Across America, ultra cycling | UltraRob | Thursday, December 14th, 2006 at 8:08 am

As I posted a couple weeks ago, Fred Boethling and John Hughes have taken over RAAM. They haven’t wasted any time changing the Enduro rules and appointing people to several positions. Jeff Stephens of Stephens Performance Marketing has been appointed to be the Sales and Marketing Director for RAAM. Jeff has 20 years of marketing with American Lung Association and American Heart Association. Hopefully he’ll be able to bring more exposure to RAAM and increase sponsorship.

The Enduro rules have been changed to not have any mandatory control points. Racers will be required to take a minimum of 10 hours off the bike in the first 1,000 miles and another 10 hours in the last 1,000 miles. The total off bike time required remains 40 hours.

This year we were required to take a minimum of 2 hours off the bike at 5 control points. I only made it past the first 3 but 2 of them totally threw my sleep off. I was required to stop when I didn’t feel I needed to since it was daylight. After stopping I tried to ride through the night since I’d already slept but kept falling asleep on the bike. I had posted a response on the Topica ultracycling list last week saying I thought the change was good. Paul Skilbeck that was the RAAM media director responded that he thought it was a bad idea because the media knew at least 5 spots along the race where riders would be stopped. I agree there has to be a balance between getting media exposure to help the race survive and not hindering the racers.